Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

About the book

Franklin recalls family circumstances, apprenticeship, travel, friendships, business decisions, and the gradual expansion of his civic interests. He presents a life in which habits can be examined and revised, treating practical failures as material for instruction rather than simply as embarrassments to conceal. His famous effort to organise the virtues gives that tendency a particularly concrete form. The narrative also shows that individual advancement depends on networks of conversation, cooperation, and institutions created with others. Its conversational confidence invites admiration while leaving room to notice the care with which the author shapes his example. This is an unfinished autobiography, not a complete account of Franklin's later public career. Its enduring interest lies in the relationship between self-portrait, useful anecdote, and a proposed method of living.

• Self-improvement
• Work and opportunity
• Civic life

Why read it

For a candid-seeming, carefully fashioned voice that makes practical habits part of a larger account of character.

Edited by Frank Woodworth Pine · English text